Buddha: Turning arrows into flowers (Turning emotional reaction into mindful reflection)
We can't always stop life’s arrows fired at us, but we can always transform their sting into inner strength and bloom with virtue
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| A serene image of the meditative Buddha, in reflection of his ego under control |
One of my favorite Buddhist sayings, or rather, wisdom, is about turning arrows into flowers, which also aligns profoundly with the wise, old, resilient, and liberating Stoic wisdom.
Just in case you're wondering what a Stoic is, a Stoic is a person who remains calm by understanding and accepting the nature of destructive forces and sees no virtue in reacting with anger or any negative emotion to setbacks, the behavior of others, or circumstances beyond their control.
The Buddha’s metaphorical yet enlightening message also similarly reflects Stoic principles, as does the story’s relevance to our lives. It helps us cope with emotional hurt by becoming self-aware of our ego, attitude, and perception.
According to the story, Mara (the figurative devil), who was actually the Buddha’s own ego from within, attacked the Buddha with thousands of fiery arrows.
The fiery arrows represent the emotional distress caused by unpleasant circumstances or the behaviour of others beyond our control, such as verbal abuse or any other unavoidable situations.
The Buddha, in return, reacted neither with sadness, anger, hatred, nor defensiveness.
Turning arrows into flowers
Instead of reacting, the Buddha continued to meditate in silence, fully focused on slow, deep breathing, while remaining at complete peace and aware of what his own ego was trying to do to him.
It was how his mind could gracefully turn those arrows into soft, beautiful, and harmless flower petals that only drifted and rained down gently around him.
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| Mara (Ego) vs. Buddha (Enlightened One) |
The story enlightens us about something we must constantly practice, especially when we experience any form of harmful emotions, such as:
Fear, anger, hate, sadness, disappointment, frustration, humiliation, feeling unappreciated, ignored, and all other emotional sufferings.
Feeling disrespected and getting hurt inside is usually a reaction to unpleasant situations or people. These are the arrows that you can turn into flowers to liberate yourself.
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| Peace vs. Right |
Seeds of violence
In the book Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thích Nhất Hạnh, expressed it this way:“As you begin to transform your own inner pain, you also transform other people’s anger and hatred into flowers.
… you do not feel injured by their arrows or actions…
… these practices provide real self-protection, which is necessary…
Every time you smile away your irritation and anger, you achieve a victory for yourself and for humanity. Your smile is like the smile of the Buddha when he defeated Mara.
Mara is within us in the form of suspicion, jealousy, and misperception, but with a good understanding of yourself and others, you will avoid getting caught by Mara and making mistakes.
Instead of watering the seeds of violence, you will cultivate the seeds of compassion and bring relief to yourself and others.”
THÍCH NHẤT HẠNH, CREATING TRUE PEACE: ENDING VIOLENCE IN YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR COMMUNITY, AND THE WORLD
Mara (Ego)
While a healthy dose of ego acts as a friend who helps us survive life’s many challenges, an inflated ego is the real enemy.
We won't be able to not react to emotional challenges without mastering our ego first. Only when we have tamed our ego can we walk through emotional challenges and even insults from others about us, about our loved ones, about our beliefs, and about everything else we deeply revere. Only then will we be able to stop, or at least reduce, the feeling of being hurt, or even go into rage.
With practice, we will slowly but surely understand that there’s no longer a need to react to verbal attacks/abuse from others. No longer a need to blame. No longer a need to be defensive. No longer a need to argue or complain. We can even begin to welcome all emotional challenges and circumstances with mindful awareness.
And though it may still hurt or anger us whenever new emotional challenges suddenly present themselves and catch us off guard, it’s ok to acknowledge the existence of these emotions within us without acting them out, as we can calmly take a deep breath and reflectively transform them into compassion towards ourselves and others in another opportunity to practice turning arrows into flowers.
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